Christmas!!

Well, lets just say, yeah it is over! We had quite the eventful day today. I won't bore you with all the details, but lets just say we had a lot of mishaps with presents this year. Needless to say, the kids were very understanding with promises of "we will fix this mess tomorrow." So the day after Christmas was spent returning, exchanging and making up for all the mistakes. Next year we are not having Christmas at our house, we will celebrate by going on a family vacation... Disney World, cruise, the beach, we will see!


Aside from all of the "present" stress, the day was nice. We did have a great breakfast (hurray for monkey bread) and a yummy dinner. The kids did have a few things from Santa to keep them busy and we did spend the day with each other! The weather was nice and warm, but we did manage to model our new BYU apparel!




We did find time to reflect and give thanks for all that we do have, and remember the real reason for celebrating Christmas, our Savior. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was pretty much a regular day for us. Jared saw patients all day. (Who wants to have a root canal on Christmas Eve?) I went to the gym in the morning and then spent the day doing laundry and cleaning the house. Joshua helped me make cookies for Santa. Unfortunately all our friends here in Louisiana are locals, and have lots of extended family around, or they traveled to be with family, so we were on our own for dinner. We decided to have a fun dinner, we fixed appetizers: chicken wings, brushetta, quiche, and shrimp. It was really yummy! After dinner, the boys opened a few gifts: their Christmas jammies and family ornament (thanks Grandma Swenson) and our annual Christmas book. After we were all dressed for bed, we curled up on the couch and read our new book "The Miracle of the Wooden Shoes" (highly recommended!) and then watched Polar Express. It was a nice and relaxing evening with the family!

Nachidoches, Louisiana

This weekend we took the family and headed to Nachidoches (don't even try to say it right, you won't!) with our friends the Otis's. This city puts on a great Christmas light display, fireworks included. We had a great time and will add this to our annual Christmas to do list while here in Louisiana. It was perfect weather!

The fireworks were awesome and we had a great view from the street. The boys were in heaven.

When you get these three together it is TROUBLE! They have a great time, and sometimes a little too much fun!

We even had snow in Louisiana....aka "bubble machine".

We had a great time, as you can see.

What a GREAT Thursday!

We had a great day today. My friend called me and told me that the space shuttle was sitting on the runway on base, if we wanted to go and see it. (Thanks Kaye!) This was a no brainer for me. If you really know my boys, especially Nathan, this would be the coolest thing ever. We jumped into the car and raced to the base, and this is what we saw.............

Pretty cool, huh! It was in route to Florida, and made a rest stop at the Air Force Base.

It was also the Stockwell Elementary Christmas Program. All the 4th and 5th graders got to perform. It was called, "North Pole Radio Hour", and it was incredible. They had it at a local Baptist Church and the ambiance was awesome. Nathan sang in the choir. He did a great job. Now, don't pass out, but I am going to brag about living here in the south for a minute. At the start of the performance they said a prayer and then at the end they sang a song about our Savior. It was great to see everyone enjoying the true Christmas spirit!

Freezer Jam

Raspberry Peach Strawberry

What a productful day I had! I made three different batches of jam. No, there was not a good sale on fruit in Louisiana. My grandma taught me a great thing about making jam. When the fruit is on sale, buy it and mix it with lemon juice and freeze it in big jars. That way when you are out of jam, you pull it out of the freezer and have fruit to make it with. My family LOVES this jam.

Our favorites:

Jared: Raspberry

Hillary: Peach

Nathan: Raspberry

Joshua: Strawberry

Now I just need to make some homemade bread to go with it! Maybe tomorrow.

What a week!

DISCLAIMER: Sorry my pictures won't enlarge! I am really frustrated! What am I doing wrong. Why won't my pictures get bigger when you click on them? HELP!!!

We have had a fun and very busy week! Jared's parents drove out to spend Thanksgiving with us. His sister, Melissa and her family came down from Arkansas too! We have loved having family here. Here is a quick overview of our activities:

We took Grandma and Grandpa to the science station. They had as much fun as the boys and even tried their luck with laying on a bed of nails. We also saw the Imax movie.




We went and saw all the airplanes on base. The boys were in heaven!


We took them to the best shopping place in Shreveport, The Louisiana Boardwalk and to see the alligators.



We had so much fun playing with cousins. I even got Jared, Grandpa and Uncle Weldon to put up the Christmas lights (thanks guys!)



We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with tons of yummy food! Actually we ate tons of yummy food all week (sweet rolls, carmel popcorn, pie, peanut butter rice krispie treats, Thanks Grandma!)



Now we must get back to our regular life...school, homework, early to bed, early to rise, and DIET!!!!!